Grantee Wins Prestigious Photography Award for Series on Indigenous Community

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Tatsiana Chypsanava, a 2023 Eyewitness Photojournalism grantee, was awarded the World Press Photo Award for a long-term photojournalism project in Asia-Pacific and Oceania. Her work will be showcased at the annual World Press Photo exhibition in Amsterdam and other cities around the world beginning in May. (You can see the complete exhibition calendar here. Details about the exhibition can be found here.)

In 2023, Chypsanava received a Pulitzer Center grant to continue supporting her Te Urewera project for the New Zealand Geographic. The project combines her decade-long photography series profiling the Tūhoe people with big questions about the Indigenous community’s future. In 2014, the New Zealand government formally apologized for historical injustices, recognized the Tūhoe people as legal guardians of Te Urewera, their rainforest homeland, and designated Te Urewera itself a legal person, granting the rainforest all the rights and responsibilities of a human being.

Now, the Tūhoe grapple with returning to their land after generations away, reconnecting to their ancestry, and re-opening the land to the public.  

In reflecting on her win, the World Press Photo judges wrote, “The jury felt this project stood out as a powerful, detailed look at the Ngāi Tūhoe people's fight for the return of their ancestral lands and indigenous rights. It captures the ongoing governance struggles between Te Urewera's ways of being and Western knowledge, along with tensions from far-right political movements. Through a variety of thoughtful frames, the work provides a compelling visual dialogue about relationships to land and cultural preservation, shedding light on an often underrepresented community.”

As part of the World Press Photo contest, Chypsanava sat down with Bruno Bayley, contributing writer at WeTransfer, to discuss and reflect on her win and what this project meant to her. (You can read her interview with Bayley here.)

Chypsanava said, “Te Urewera is not just a place—it is a living ancestor, a witness to the resilience of the Tūhoe people who have fought tirelessly to reclaim their identity and guardianship over their ancestral lands. This project, spanning a decade, became a journey of mutual trust and shared stories. Winning the World Press Photo Award is a shared victory—not just for me, but for the Tūhoe families who opened their homes and lives.

“This work challenges outdated views by showing that Indigenous communities like the Tūhoe are not relics of the past. They are living guardians of their traditions and ecosystems. For them, the land is not just a resource; it’s a part of who they are. I hope this project helps people see and understand their stories in a new way.”

In fall 2023, she was awarded the Eyewitness Photojournalism Grant, which is given annually to support three independent photojournalists historically underrepresented in the global media landscape. The Eyewitness Photojournalism Grant is a collaboration between the Pulitzer Center and the organization Diversify Photo.

“The Eyewitness Photojournalism Grant provided crucial support to deepen this work, allowing me to embed myself in the community and expand my Ruatoki project into a larger exploration of Te Urewera. By spending time in Ruatoki, Ruatāhuna, Maungapōhatu, and Waikaremoana, I witnessed how each community carries forward their reconnection to their common living ancestor—a process rooted in mātauranga (traditional knowledge) and healing. For me, this project transcends photography; it’s about accountability. The Tūhoe reminded me that land is not a resource but a relationship. Their fight for mana motuhake (self-determination) mirrors global Indigenous struggles, and I hope these images and stories inspire others.”

Chypsanava’s project is an important reminder about the strength of long-term photojournalism when a story is given the space to be nurtured over several years. Her work explores the power of building relationships with those who are photographed, and allowing the images to speak for themselves. 

See her photographs in her feature piece for New Zealand Geographic, “Tūhoe Rising,” and read the accompanying words by Kennedy Warne.